Abstract
We previously reported that daily exposure for 4 days to an inescapable form of footshock stress, known to cause opioid-mediated analgesia, suppressed the cytotoxic activity of splenic natural killer (NK) cells in rats. Similarly, daily injection of high doses of morphine (≥30 mg/kg) for 4 days also suppressed splenic NK cell activity. We now report that a single exposure to the opioid form of footshock stress or a single high dose of morphine induces suppression of splenic NK cell cytotoxicity. This effect is evident 3 h after treatment, returning to normal by 24 h. Morphine-induced NK suppression is evident in both male and female rats, is blocked by the opiate antagonist naltrexone, and develops tolerance. Morphine-induced NK suppression is seen in cells derived simultaneously from the spleen, bone marrow, and peripheral blood, suggesting that this suppression does not result from a selective egress of NK cells from the spleen.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 318-328 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Brain, Behavior, and Immunity |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 1987 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was supported by NIH Grant NS07628 and by a gift from the David H. Murdock Foundation for Advanced Brain Studies. Y.S. was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as a postdoctoral fellow. F.C.M. was supported by NlMH Grant MH15345.